We know what actors do. We know what writers do. But what does a movie producer do, other than arrange financing for films and accept Academy Awards? Featuring in-depth interviews with 14 top movie producers, including eight who have won Oscars for Best Picture, this book describes how they nurture a project from concept to casting to screen. They are entrepreneurs, essentially creating a new business every time they start work on a film. They possess an array of skills and talents and the resilience and the fortitude to not take “no” for an answer. The interviewees are Marc Abraham, Tony Bill, Albert Berger, Ron Yerxa, Clint Eastwood, Taylor Hackford, Mark Johnson, Arnold Kopelson, Alan Ladd, Jr., Michael London, Fred Roos, Paula Wagner, Jim Wilson and Janet Yang.

This is a moving, star-filled account of one of Hollywood’s true golden ages as told by a man in the middle of it all. Walter Mirisch’s company has produced some of the most entertaining and enduring classics in film history, including West Side Story, Some Like It Hot, In the Heat of the Night, and The Magnificent Seven. His work has led to 87 Academy Award nominations and 28 Oscars. Richly illustrated with rare photographs from his personal collection, I Thought We Were Making Movies, Not History reveals Mirisch’s own experience of Hollywood and tells the stories of the stars—emerging and established—who appeared in his films, including Natalie Wood, John Wayne, Peter Sellers, Sidney Poitier, Steve McQueen, Marilyn Monroe, and many others. With hard-won insight and gentle humor, Mirisch recounts how he witnessed the end of the studio system, the development of independent production, and the rise and fall of some of Hollywood’s most gifted (and notorious) cultural icons. A producer with a passion for creative excellence, he offers insights into his innovative filmmaking process, revealing a rare ingenuity for placating the demands of auteur directors, weak-kneed studio executives, and troubled screen sirens. From his early start as a movie theater usher to the presentation of such masterpieces as The Apartment, Fiddler on the Roof, and The Great Escape, Mirisch tells the inspiring life story of his climb to the highest echelon of the American film industry. This book assures Mirisch’s legacy—as Elmore Leonard puts it—as “one of the good guys.” Best Books for Special Interests, selected by the American Association of School Librarians, and Best Books for General Audiences, selected by the Public Library Association

When it comes to Hollywood, Christians too quickly wash their hands of popular culture and leave this immensely influential media to unbelievers. In truth, the industry is listening. There is a church in Hollywood, but too often their work is unrecognized. Behind the Screen offers a glimpse of Hollywood insiders who, through their jobs on movie sets, behind TV shows, and in radio broadcasts, work together to give glory to God. With contributions from the writers and producers of such productions as Joan of Arcadia, Mission Impossible, Batman Forever, That '70s Show, and others, believers everywhere are encouraged to join with the church in Hollywood and do their part in closing the gap between Christianity and culture.

Budding filmmakers, television producers, directors, writers, and students get a crash course on the independent production scene in this riveting account of the business and its key players. Now revised to reflect the latest production trends in the entertainment industry, this book is packed with never-before-revealed secrets about the challenging and exciting role producers play in bringing a film or television pilot to the screen, told by two veteran, award-winning producers. Readers will learn what skills and traits they need to succeed as the mastermind behind an independent production, including insider tips on how to assemble and manage a talented ensemble of writers, directors, actors, and crew-members. The book also includes up-to-date contact information for film festivals and foreign distributors, as well as sample budgets, film partnership proposals, and other forms. Aspiring film and television artists will find the practical understanding and insight vital to success.

(Limelight). A Killer Life is a book about just that: the killer life of an alternative film producer who's forged her own path of success between the disparate pillars of art and commerce. Strong, steady, creative, loyal, funny, artistic, and doggedly determined to produce films that have meaning and substance and staying power in the pantheon of great cinema, Christine Vachon, a member of the Academy and born and bred on the realistic, unforgiving streets of New York City, is one of the most important people working behind the scenes in the film industry today. How did she get there? Why do directors love her? What does it take to produce great movies? What happened on the set of Kids ? These answers and more are in her book!

This is the second volume of the widely acclaimed Art of the Cut book published in 2017. This follow-up text expands on its predecessor with wisdom from more than 360 interviews with the world’s best editors (including nearly every Oscar winner from the last 30 years). Because editing is a highly subjective art form, and one that is critical to the success of motion picture storytelling, it requires side-by-side comparisons of the many techniques and solutions used by a wide range of editors from around the world. That is why this book compares and contrasts methodologies from a wide array of diverse voices and organizes that information so that it is easily digested and understood. There is no one way to approach editorial problems, so this book allows readers to see multiple solutions from multiple editors. The interviews contained within are carefully curated into topics that are most important to film editors and those who aspire to become film editors. The questions asked, and the organization of the book, are not merely an academic or theoretical view of the art of editing but rather the practical advice and methodologies of actual working film and TV editors, bringing benefits to both students and professional readers. The book is supplemented by a collection of downloadable online exclusive chapters, which cover additional topics ranging from Choosing the Project to VFX. In addition to the supplementary chapters, access to the full-color, full-resolution images printed in the book—and other exclusive images—is included.

“A lively memoir . . . a first-hand work of cinema history . . . the testament of a pivotal figure in American moviemaking.” —Martin Scorsese The list of films Irwin Winkler has produced in his more-than-fifty-year career is extraordinary: Rocky, Goodfellas, Raging Bull, De-Lovely, The Right Stuff, Creed, and The Irishman. His films have been nominated for fifty-two Academy Awards, including five movies for Best Picture, and have won twelve. In A Life in Movies, his charming and insightful memoir, Winkler tells the stories of his career through his many films as a producer and then as a writer and director, charting the changes in Hollywood over the past decades. Winkler started in the famous William Morris mailroom and made his first film—starring Elvis—in the last days of the old studio system. Beginning in the late 1960s, and then for decades to come, he produced a string of provocative and influential films, making him one of the most critically lauded, prolific, and commercially successful producers of his era. This is an engrossing and candid book, a beguiling exploration of what it means to be a producer, including purchasing rights, developing scripts, casting actors, managing directors, editing film, and winning awards. Filled with tales of legendary and beloved films, as well as some not-so-legendary and forgotten ones, A Life in Movies takes readers behind the scenes and into the history of Hollywood. “Charming and anecdote packed . . . popcorn for movie nerds.” —Newsweek “A deftly written recollection of an eventful and happy life in a precarious and, frankly, insane business; a remarkably clear-eyed look behind the scenes of moviemaking.” —Kevin Kline